Thursday 19 December 2019 7.30–9.30pm Barbican

LSO SEASON CONCERT THE MIRACULOUS MANDARIN

Sophya Polevaya Spellbound Tableaux (world premiere)* BARTÓK Elgar Cello Concerto Interval Bartók The Miraculous Mandarin

François-Xavier Roth conductor Alisa Weilerstein cello London Symphony Chorus Simon Halsey chorus director

*Commissioned through the Panufnik Composers Scheme, generously supported by Lady Hamlyn and The Helen Hamlyn Trust Welcome Latest News On Our Blog

Tonight’s programme concludes with LSO PANUFNIK COMPOSERS SCHEME: LSO DISCOVERY SINGING DAY: Bartók’s pantomime ballet The Miraculous APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN CHRIST ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES Mandarin, which was also written 100 years ago, for which we are joined on stage by the Applications for the 2020/21 LSO Panufnik ‘Writing Christ on the Mount of Olives, London Symphony Chorus. Most frequently Composers Scheme are now open. Generously Beethoven laid the groundwork for oratorios performed as a concert suite during Bartók’s supported by Lady Hamlyn and The Helen by Schumann, Mendelssohn and Berlioz, and lifetime, preserving just two-thirds of the Hamlyn Trust, each year the scheme offers Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas!’, explains original music, we are delighted tonight to six emerging composers the opportunity to Choral Director Simon Halsey. Read about perform this work in full. The performance write for the Orchestra, guided by composers our most recent Singing Day and discover will also be recorded for LSO Live. Colin Matthews and Christian Mason. more about Beethoven’s only oratorio ahead of two performances in the New Year. warm welcome to this evening’s I wish you a very happy festive season, and • lso.co.uk/more/news LSO concert at the Barbican, hope you are able to join us again in the New ELGAR’S CELLO CONCERTO: conducted by Principal Guest Year. The LSO’s 2019/20 concert season at 100-YEAR ANNIVERSARY Conductor François-Xavier Roth. We are the Barbican continues on 9 January with joined tonight by soloist Alisa Weilerstein, Nathalie Stutzmann conducting Brahms’ WELCOME TO TONIGHT’S GROUP On 27 October 1919, the LSO performed the who made her LSO debut with Elgar’s Symphony No 1. Throughout January and world premiere of one of the most popular Cello Concerto in 2016. It is a pleasure to February, Sir celebrates Olga Polevaya & Friends works in the repertoire: Elgar’s Cello Concerto. welcome her back to the LSO to perform this the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's One hundred years later, we take a look at much-loved piece, 100 years after its world birth with the composer’s Seventh and the history of this piece, its current popularity, premiere with the Orchestra, and we look Symphonies, and eagerly awaited and how this wasn’t always the case … forward to her joining us again for concerts performances of the rarely heard oratorio in Paris and Lyon in March. Christ on the Mount of Olives. • • lso.co.uk/more/blog

The concert begins with a new work by composer Sophya Polevaya, Spellbound Tableaux, commissioned as part of the LSO Panufnik Composers Scheme. We extend our thanks to Lady Hamlyn and The Helen Kathryn McDowell CBE DL Please ensure all phones are switched off. Hamlyn Trust for their generous support Managing Director Photography and audio/video recording of the scheme, which has supported some are not permitted during the performance. 90 composers since its launch in 2005.

2 Welcome 19 December 2019 Tonight’s Concert In Brief Coming Up

onight’s concert opens with the and is provocative, intense, and at moments Friday 3 January 1pm Sunday 19 January 10am–5pm world premiere of Spellbound brutal. Bartók mirrors this in the music, with LSO St Luke’s Barbican & LSO St Luke’s Tableaux, a new work by composer dream-like sequences interspersed with Sophya Polevaya, inspired by the 1945 Alfred frantic moments reminiscent of Stravinsky’s BBC RADIO 3 LUNCHTIME CONCERT LSO DISCOVERY Hitchcock filmSpellbound . As a homage to The Rite of Spring. • BACH UP CLOSE DISCOVERY DAY: BEETHOVEN Hitchcock's combination of classic Hollywood allure with surrealist art, suspense and the PROGRAMME NOTE WRITERS J S Bach Sonatas for violin and harpsichord Attend a morning LSO rehearsal conducted pseudo-cryptic, the Tableaux incorporate No 4 in C minor; No 1 in B minor; by Sir Simon Rattle, followed by a talk and musical cryptograms into five scenes. Jo Kirkbride is Head of Artistic Planning No 6 in G major chamber music at LSO St Luke’s. at the Dunedin Consort. She is an external Elgar’s Cello Concerto follows, premiered by assessor for Creative Scotland's Open Project Alina Ibragimova violin Part of Beethoven 250 at the Barbican the LSO in October 1919 with the composer Funding strand and sits on the Board of Carole Cerasi harpsichord himself conducting. The piece has overcome Directors for New Music Scotland. Sunday 19 January 7pm initial mixed reviews to become a stalwart Recorded for future broadcast by BBC Radio 3 Barbican of the solo repertoire for cellists. The lyrical Lewis Foreman works as a repertoire first movement opens boldly from the consultant for various record companies, Thursday 9 January 7.30pm CHRIST ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES soloist, who later takes over a flowing theme and has written books on, among others, Barbican first heard in the violas. This is contrasted Grainger, Rubbra and Vaughan Williams, Berg Violin Concerto with a scherzo second movement propelled by as well as a biography of Sir Arnold Bax. MENDELSSOHN VIOLIN CONCERTO Beethoven Christ on the Mount of Olives the soloist. Passionate and singing solo lines soar over a pared-back orchestra in the third Andrew Stewart is a freelance music journalist Wagner Overture and Venusburg Sir Simon Rattle conductor movement, which leads to an expansive and writer. He is the author of The LSO at 90, Music from ‘Tannhäuser’ Lisa Batiashvili violin finale, tinged with heartbreaking interjections and contributes to a wide variety of specialist Mendelssohn Violin Concerto Elsa Dreisig soprano from the cello throughout. classical music publications. Brahms Symphony No 1 Pavol Breslik tenor David Soar bass Bartók’s pantomime ballet, The Miraculous Jan Smaczny is the Sir Hamilton Harty Nathalie Stutzmann conductor London Symphony Chorus Mandarin, completes tonight’s concert. Professor of Music at Queen’s University, Alina Ibragimova violin Simon Halsey chorus director First performed in 1926 – and subsequently Belfast. A well-known writer and broadcaster, banned the day after its premiere – the he specialises in the life and works of Dvořák 6pm Barbican: Free pre-concert recital Part of Beethoven 250 at the Barbican story at the heart of this work originated in and in Czech opera, and has published books LSO Platforms: Guildhall Artists a ‘grotesque pantomime’ by the Hungarian on the repertoire of the Prague Provisional playwright Menyhért (Melchior) Lengyel, Theatre and Dvořák’s Cello Concerto. Recommended by Classic FM

Tonight’s Concert 3 Sophya Polevaya Spellbound Tableaux 2019 / note by Jo Kirkbride LSO DISCOVERY: NEW MUSIC

Saturday 15 February 7pm 1 Lovers’ Knot that distinguishes it from monumental art’, of intensity, ‘a polarity of lyricism and LSO St Luke’s 2 Hitchcock Cameo: A Recitative Polevaya explains, ‘an acute conciseness and aggression’ that signifies the complexity of 3 Dream Burlesque a display of considerable detail in a small J.B.’s difficult character. But this aggression SOUNDHUB SHOWCASE: PHASE II 4 Interlude space. It was an interesting idea to apply to is swapped for desolation in the ‘Memento 5 Memento Mori the orchestral medium, which is in effect a Mori’ that follows, gravitating to the theme Alex Ho and Sun Keting, composers on paradox to it, a medium of epic proportions.’ of death with a rendition of the Dies Irae Phase II of LSO Discovery’s Soundhub ased on Alfred Hitchcock’s chant as its backdrop. In the end, it is this scheme, showcase new music, joined by 1945 filmSpellbound , Sophya At the smallest scale, Polevaya structures fragility, always teetering on the brink of the LSO musicians. Polevaya’s score takes as its muse the work around a series of cryptograms, abyss, that sees the work out – not with a this fantastical film and abstracts it still rendering the names of the film’s main flurry but with a slow, inexorable ebb. • LSO Soundhub is generously supported by further. It is not, as she tells us, ‘a retelling characters into a series of musical motifs Susie Thomson of the same story scene by scene, nor a (‘some are more leitmotivic/declamatory; replacement underscore to a particular others discreet, a personal token’). In the Thursday 26 March 10am–1.30pm frame’. Rather, it is an impression or opening scene we meet the central character, LSO St Luke’s 2.30–6pm abstraction of the idea itself. Left open as J.B., his motif being the first two pitches. musical snapshots, the five intense scenes But as the texture begins to swell into a PANUFNIK COMPOSERS of Spellbound Tableaux capture Hitchcock’s chamber-like ensemble, this extends into WORKSHOP drama from several, seemingly disparate a cryptogram of his full name – John Brown angles. Gone is any traditional, teleological – which is joined at the end of the movement Eight composers hear their new work narrative, and in its place she offers the by a cryptogram of Constance, his lover. The rehearsed by the LSO and François-Xavier listeners a more complex, multi-dimensional two become coiled together, creating the Roth, with mentors Colin Matthews and object, one that can be viewed (or heard) lovers’ knot of the scene’s title. Christian Mason. from any number of directions. Only at the end are we able to zoom out, to piece The second and third movements – a François-Xavier Roth conductor together the puzzle, and to understand the recitative and a burlesque – together present work as a cohesive whole. a twist on the idea of a play within a play. Free entry, booking essential Here, in a nod towards Hitchcock’s own This short- and long-range zoom effect, cameo within the film, Polevaya inserts a The Panufnik Composers scheme is this oscillation between the small and the ‘quasi-concerto for the violin’, a genre within generously supported by Lady Hamlyn epic, is itself an echo of Hitchcock’s own a genre, which includes the spelling out and The Helen Hamlyn Trust filmic techniques. ‘For me, the miniature of Hitchcock’s own name and initials. The form has a number of appealing qualities fourth movement, an interlude, is a jumble

4 Programme Notes 19 December 2019 Sophya Polevaya In Profile / profile by Jo Kirkbride

ophya Polevaya has a broad Born and based in London, Polevaya describes the opera house and the film screen. In this worldview when it comes to music. her interest in music as ‘self-cultivated’, respect, she cites Mauricio Kagel as one ‘I think it would become apparent something that home schooling allowed her of her greatest influences: ‘he refreshed to the listener that I’m a classically trained to explore to the full. Guitar, saxophone and the concert medium with his innovative composer, acknowledging an eye for formal composition lessons eventually led to her composed theatre aesthetic, playing on the principles in say structural integrity, melody studying music at Royal Holloway and later, light versus the serious’. and rhythm. However, I’m no purist’, she composition at the Royal Academy of Music says. ‘My aspiration as a composer is to – but along the way, her interests broadened This ambition to reach beyond the concert have different angles, the expression is still further. As a saxophonist, she found hall and to embrace elements of film is quite plural.’ This might mean combining herself experimenting with effects pedals deep-seated. Polevaya recalls a youth spent instruments with non-instruments, the and loop stations, and from there she watching old Hollywood classics on VHS experimental with the historical, incorporating developed an interest in electroacoustic and memorising the scripts, which led to DIY electronics, micro-tonal and/ composition. Her debut album, Electric Scent a love of Hitchcock, Kubrick, Chaplin and or performance choreography. (2019), brings these two strands together, Tarkovsky, among others. The opportunity showcasing both her electroacoustic writing to compose for the London Symphony Theatre, film and other art forms all influence and her talent as a multi-instrumentalist. Orchestra – well-known for appearing on these creative processes, together coalescing iconic film scores, includingStar Wars and into a style that is both highly theatrical and Even when she is not the performer, Fiddler on the Roof – then, is a closing of sometimes even deliberately disarming. ‘I her music remains rooted in the act of the circle. ‘I love the whole escapism’, she once wrote an ensemble piece where the performance, geared towards the dramatic says, ‘the total art quality of films … My conductor takes on a theatrical role dressing effect that it will have when shared with first encounter with the LSO was, like for up as a policeman’, she recalls. ‘They have listeners. The fantasy, she says, would be to many people, through cinema, and I decided to conduct while blowing a whistle, stamping compose an orchestral work with staging, I wanted this commission to resonate with their feet rhythmically, while also brandishing costume, lighting and choreography. In this connection.’ • and stabbing the air with a butter knife.’ other words, to liberate the score from its Such performance choreography, she traditional concert hall trappings and to take concedes, is not always possible. it somewhere else, somewhere between

Composer Profile 5 Sophya Polevaya In Conversation / interview by Lydia Heald

layers for a piece, ideas that are quite far my eye when watching this particular film, out, or perhaps an alternative that is more rather than a retelling of the plot or a interesting than the original idea. replacement underscore to a specific frame.

Spellbound Tableaux is a take on Alfred What is it like being a young emerging Hitchcock’s 1945 film Spellbound. I was composer in the 21st century? absorbed in the Cluedo-esque quality of the film, this thrill of knowing that certain It’s a very individual journey of creating, objects hold an intricate detail. In the spirit discovery, attempting to realise ideas of that, I made my own letter-to-note system – that’s one of the great things about it! and from that I generated some cryptograms I think it’s promising that there is an around the Spellbound characters’ names, as increasing diversity in the image of who well as for Hitchcock himself. might be a composer.

What drew you to Hitchcock’s Spellbound? As well as being a composer, you’re also a saxophonist. How does your work as a Hitchcock’s films are so wonderfully crafted composer inform your work as a performer, that it’s hard not to be captivated by them! and vice-versa? head of the world premiere of Growing up in London, I went to the LSO’s Imagine what it must have been like to see her piece, Spellbound Tableaux, concerts at the Barbican often, so for the this star-studded film in the 1940s with the The two are quite interconnected for me as we caught up with composer and coin to flip and for something of mine to be provocative poster headline ‘Will he kiss me or I play my own music and write for myself saxophonist Sophya Polevaya. presented is quite surreal! kill me?’. It’s very different to today’s cinema, as well. Through the saxophone, I became but I think as a contemporary viewer you can more conscious of experimental forms of What has your journey been like from first Where do you find your inspiration when still appreciate the drama, Hitchcock’s vision performance. Then, when I’m composing getting into music to where you are now? writing a new piece of music? and also the impact this film had. a piece, I find working at an instrument a useful way to think aloud, the being I was fortunate to have music lessons from My work is fuelled by many things: a specific How would you describe the finished piece? my main go-to instrument. It can be quite an early age. A little later I started looking at sound, instrument, form, performance freeing to allow a part of the composing to composition as well. I just kept going with it! narrative or something completely outside The Tableaux is a set of scenes, a montage evolve at an instrument. • I applied for the LSO Panufnik Composers of music that I have encountered. The actual of different ideas – there are five in total, Scheme in 2017. I received the 10-minute process of composing itself can be a form each one short in duration. It’s very much Read the full interview on our blog. commission from that year’s scheme. of inspiration too! It often sparks secondary an appreciative impression of what caught • lso.co.uk/more/blog

6 In Conversation 19 December 2019 BEETHOVEN 250 conducted by Sir Simon Rattle January & February 2020 BARTÓK & DUKAS conducted by François-Xavier Roth & Sir Simon Rattle March & April 2020 ARTIST PORTRAIT & DUKAS with soloist Antoine Tamestit April to June 2020

The LSO’s 2019/20 season PLUS DON’T MISS Sir Antonio Pappano, Karina Canellakis, continues in the New Year Susanna Mälkki & Sir Mark Elder conduct Vaughan Williams, Ravel, Debussy & more

lso.co.uk/201920 Edward Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor Op 85 1919 / note by Lewis Foreman

1 Adagio – Moderato out of the war, but there is little direct external The concerto is dedicated to Sidney and first movement is simpler than in many 2 Lento – Allegro molto evidence. It was a terrible time for so many, Francis Colvin, two of Elgar’s literary friends. concertos. Here, after the soloist’s resonant 3 Adagio and particularly painful for Elgar, when so Sidney Colvin was Director of the Fitzwilliam introductory chords, the main theme in 4 Allegro ma non troppo much of the world he had known and loved Museum at Cambridge, Keeper of Prints 9/8 metre is repeated six times in various was irrevocably changed. and Drawings at the British Museum and colourings and treatments, before the Alisa Weilerstein cello President of the Literary Society. It was he romantic middle section, which develops the The Cello Concerto was premiered in the who had successfully interested Elgar in 9/8 theme and sends the cello into flights n the latter part of 1917 and early opening concert of the LSO’s Queen’s Hall setting Binyon’s poems in what became of reminiscent romantic fantasy. The main part of 1918, Elgar was constantly Winter 1919/20 season. When Elgar arrived the three-part wartime choral work The 9/8 theme was first sketched in March 1918, ill and eventually it was decided to rehearse the concerto the day before the Spirit of England. which perhaps gives us a first clue to its to remove his tonsils, the operation taking concert, Albert Coates, who was conducting wartime provenance. Its elegiac character is place on 15 March 1918. This was successful the remainder of the programme, kept him Although Elgar made no overtly programmatic reinforced when it returns for four further and on 22 March, the night before returning waiting for over an hour, so the concerto’s claims about this work, many have argued repetitions and the mood becomes more home, he wrote a theme which we now know rehearsal became a brief scramble: in the that it is an elegy for World War I. This is and more autumnal. The music runs on into as the opening theme of the Cello Concerto. half hour remaining it can have been little a persuasive assertion, vindicated for the a scherzo, which begins with a pizzicato The Elgars soon decamped to ‘Brinkwells’, more than a play-through. On the day of the commentator by internal evidence. You version of the opening chords. Then, after their Sussex cottage. However, there was no concert, Coates did it again, and only because might like to make your own decision during slow questioning phrases, it whirls away in immediate mention of any Cello Concerto, the Orchestra volunteered to stay for an extra this evening’s performance. A motto for a torrent of thistledown semiquavers. This and indeed, when he resumed composing, half-hour, unpaid, was it possible to have our discussion is that of the tempo marking is the world of Elgar’s youth, complete with it was to write the Violin Sonata, quickly any rehearsal at all. Not surprisingly, it had used almost uniquely by Elgar: nobilmente a brief, swaggering romantic extension. followed by the Piano Quintet. The actual mixed reviews. (nobly). On looking at the score of the Cello They combine and Elgar is brought back to composition of the Cello Concerto seems Concerto, one’s first surprise is that he present realities, perhaps musing on what to have taken place in the spring and early Until well into World War II, the Cello Concerto marks the opening with this instruction. might have been. summer of 1919. remained something of a connoisseur’s What can he mean? – for this is far from piece. Gradually, a number of celebrated the grand, even grandiloquent manner The adagio is not only the shortest and most Although there had been a major tradition cellists championed it, but it was Pablo associated with this mood in some of his concentrated movement in the concerto, of new concertos for both violin and piano Casals’ performance in November 1936, other music. but also requires a smaller orchestra than during the 30 years before World War I, there under Sir Adrian Boult, that announced the the others. It is framed by eight exquisite were practically no British cello concertos work’s final acceptance, in spite of much Here we have a four-movement concerto bars of yearning phrases for the soloist, and since Sullivan’s youthful effort in the 1860s. grumbling, characteristic of that time, that a with a break between the second and then Elgar’s cello sings elegiacally, with a It is undeniable that Elgar’s concerto grew non-British cellist could not understand it. third movements. The shape of the wonderfully ever-extending line, for a world

8 Programme Notes 19 December 2019 Edward Elgar In Profile 1857–1934 Sunday 15 March 2020 7pm Barbican that has been lost. At the beginning of the At the end of March 1891, the Elgars were finale it is linked by a recitative – a sort of invited to travel to Bayreuth for that VAUGHAN WILLIAMS cadenza – to the apparently extrovert finale, summer’s festival of Wagner’s operas, a which is again marked nobilmente as Elgar prospect that inspired Elgar immediately Vaughan Williams Fantasia strides out into the world once more. But to compose three movements for string on a Theme by Thomas Tallis the bravado is short-lived, and the more orchestra, the Serenade. The Variations Britten Violin Concerto introspective music underlines the fact on an Original Theme ‘Enigma’ (1898-99) Vaughan Williams Symphony No 6 that this is the final ghost of a world that and his oratorio The Dream of Gerontius has passed. (1900) cemented his position as England’s Sir Antonio Pappano conductor finest composer, crowned by two further Vilde Frang violin Towards the end, Elgar springs the surprise oratorios, a series of ceremonial works, two of a new slow theme, a passage of symphonies and concertos for violin and cello. 5.30pm LSO Platforms unprecedented chromaticism, focusing all Guildhall Artists: Free recital his pathos and autumnal feeling, a cry of Elgar, who was knighted in 1904, became anguish if ever there was one. This is merged lgar’s father, a trained piano-tuner, the LSO’s Principal Conductor in 1911 and Recommended by Classic FM with the wraith of the slow movement, ran a music shop in Worcester premiered many of his works with the giving the effect of a despairing mourner in the 1860s. Young Edward, the Orchestra. Shortly before the end of World Sunday 29 March 2020 7pm refusing to accept events. Then, suddenly, as fourth of seven children, showed musical War I, he entered an almost cathartic period Barbican if Elgar has woken from his reverie, we have talent but was largely self-taught as a player of chamber-music composition, completing the return of the opening flourish, and the and composer. During his early freelance the peaceful, slow movement of his String ELGAR & SIBELIUS curt eight orchestral bars of dismissal. career, which included work conducting the Quartet soon after Armistice Day. The Piano staff band at the County Lunatic Asylum Quintet was finished in February 1919 and Elgar Violin Concerto At the end, all are playing together almost in Powick, he suffered many setbacks. He reveals the composer’s deep nostalgia for Sibelius Symphony No 4 for the first time, as if the composer is was forced to continue teaching long after times past. In his final years, he recorded brusquely saying, ‘well that’s enough of all the desire to compose full-time had taken many of his works with the LSO and, despite Sir Mark Elder conductor that’. In his own list of works, Elgar wrote hold. A picture emerges of a frustrated, illness, managed to sketch movements of a Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider violin against this concerto ‘Finis RIP’: his age pessimistic man, whose creative impulses Third Symphony. • indeed had passed. • were restrained by his circumstances and 5.30pm: Free pre-concert recital apparent lack of progress. The cantata Profile by Andrew Stewart LSO Platforms: Guildhall Artist Interval – 20 minutes Caractacus, commissioned by the Leeds There are bars on all levels. Festival and premiered in 1898, brought the Recommended by Classic FM composer recognition beyond his native city.

Composer Profile 9 Bela Bartók The Miraculous Mandarin Op 19 – Ballet 1918–19, orch 1924 / note by Jan Smaczny

1 Beginning – the curtain rises however, until the autumn of 1924. The first to lure men in from the street, whom they cushions, but his face emerges to gaze 2 First game of seduction performance was given at the Cologne Opera intend to beat up and rob. The first victim longingly at the young woman. Pulling 3 Second game of seduction in 1926, conducted by Bartók’s enthusiastic to respond to her advances (depicted by a themselves together, the hoodlums stab 4 Third game of seduction – supporter, Jenő Szenkár. Szenkár recounted sinuous clarinet solo) is a penniless roué him with a rusty sword, but after staggering the Mandarin enters the difficulty that the score’s complexity who is soon thrown out by the hoodlums from the blows, the Mandarin recovers and 5 Dance of the young girl created in rehearsal and also described the (rapid triplets in the brass). Another, slightly again makes for the young woman. Finally, 6 The chase – the hoodlums leap out uproar it encountered from both the public wilder clarinet solo heralds the arrival of the they hang him from a lamp hook ( 7 Suddenly the Mandarin’s head appears and the press at the premiere; apparently, second victim, a young man, also without and instrumental lines over a – the hoodlums drag the Mandarin to the booing and whistling led to the lowering money, but attractive enough for the young terrifyingly hollow accompaniment). The the centre of the floor of the safety curtain. A staging in Budapest, woman to want to dance with him. Their lamp falls to the floor and is extinguished; to 8 The Mandarin falls to the floor which had been planned to honour the dance moves to a passionate climax, but the the sound of a wordless chorus, the body of composer’s 50th birthday in 1931, did not fate of the young man is the same as that of the Mandarin begins to glow with a strange, artók’s last work for the stage survive the dress rehearsal. his predecessor and after his precipitate exit, greenish-blue light. At last, the young originated in a ‘grotesque she looks out once more. woman realises that this terrible episode pantomime’ by the Hungarian Bartók’s music plots the course of Lengyel’s can only end if she accepts his embrace. The playwright Menyhért (Melchior) Lengyel quasi-expressionistic tale in compelling The third and last time, she is terrified to see hoodlums cut the Mandarin down and she (1880–1974), which he first encountered in detail. The presentation of the story is the Mandarin with his strange appearance takes him in her arms. The Mandarin is, at 1917. With its low-life urban setting, this tale certainly a long way from the sequence and intense stare. The music reaches a last, satisfied; his wounds begin to bleed of prostitution and violence was as remote of set pieces seen in conventional ballet. raucous climax as he enters the room. In and he dies. from the fairy-tale world of his second stage Indeed, the action of the Mandarin is the long dance that follows, the young work, , as the graphic propelled as much by mime as by dance. woman loses her fear and finally embraces The musical style of The Miraculous action of that ballet had been from the If occasionally the composer’s delivery of the Mandarin. His excited reaction is too Mandarin is far harder edged than that dark, claustrophobic intensity of the opera the scenario results in some fitful gestures, much for her and she tears herself away; of Bartók’s earlier stage works and the Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. A clear connection Bartók’s control of the dramatic structure during the driving fugal interlude that expression considerably more succinct. between the three works, however, is the and depiction of each incident is superbly follows, the Mandarin pursues and captures Moments of stillness alternate with frantic composer’s close attention to instrumental assured. her, but as she struggles the hoodlums activity in a score that has more than a sonority in projecting the atmosphere of each. emerge to beat and rob him. hint of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. The opening of the work is a magnificently As contemporary reactions showed, the Bartók began work on the score of The graphic evocation of the sounds of the city In the last part of the work, the action accompaniment to this bizarre scenario Miraculous Mandarin in 1918 and had outside the tawdry room in which the action moves from the brutally physical to the is often appallingly vivid, but it makes for completed the piano score by the spring is set. Three hoodlums are introduced; eerily metaphysical. At first, the robbers compulsive listening. • of 1919. He did not finish the orchestration, they force the young woman with them attempt to smother the Mandarin with

10 Programme Notes 19 December 2019 Béla Bartók In Profile 1881–1945

to the works of Debussy in 1907, the year in which Bartók became Professor of Piano at the Budapest Conservatory.

Bartók established his mature style with such scores as the ballet The Miraculous Mandarin and his opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. He revived his career as a concert pianist in 1927, when he gave the premiere of his First Piano Concerto in Mannheim.

Bartók detested the rise of fascism and in October 1940, he quit Budapest and travelled to the US. At first, he concentrated on ethno-musicological research, but eventually returned to composition and created a significant group of ‘American’ works, including the Concerto for Orchestra orn in 1881 in Hungary, Bartók and his Third Piano Concerto. began piano lessons with his mother at the age of five. He His character was distinguished by a firm, studied piano and composition at the Royal almost stubborn refusal to compromise or Academy of Music in Budapest, where he be diverted from his musical instincts by created a number of works that echoed the money or position. Throughout his working style of Brahms and Richard Strauss. life, Bartók collected, transcribed and annotated the folk songs of many countries, He discovered Austro-Hungarian and Slavic a commitment that brought little financial folk music after graduating, travelling return or recognition, but one which he extensively with his friend Zoltán Kodály regarded as his most important contribution and recording countless ethnic songs and to music. • dances which began to influence his own compositions. Kodály also introduced him Profile by Andrew Stewart

Composer Profile 11 François-Xavier Roth conductor

Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra and a revival of Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten. recording of Mahler’s Third Symphony Tonhalle, Zürich. In 2019/20, he makes With the Gürzenich Orchestra, he continues joins their Fifth, both works having been return visits to the , his Bruckner cycle, an exploration of Berlioz, premiered by this orchestra. Royal Concertgebouw, Orchestre de Paris, and features new commissions from Gander Montreal Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan and Srnka alongside works by Bach, Rameau Engagement with new audiences is an Symphony, Munich Philharmonic and Mahler and Rebel. In celebration of Beethoven 250, essential part of François-Xavier Roth’s Chamber Orchestras. He makes a double The New Academy carries the spirit with work. With the Berlioz Festival and Les appearance with the Boulez Ensemble, which Beethoven staged his academy concerts Siècles, he founded the Jeune Orchestre and last month made his debut with the in Vienna into the here and now, juxtaposing Européen Hector Berlioz, an orchestra- Leipzig Gewandhaus. intense moments of Beethoven’s music with academy with its own collection of period particular, contemporary hallmark styles. instruments. They recently performed In 2003, he founded Les Siècles, an innovative The New Academy will also tour to London, the first part of Les Troyens in Berlioz’s orchestra performing contrasting and Munich, Hamburg and Lyon. birthplace. Roth and Les Siècles devised colourful programmes on modern and period Presto!, a television series for France 2, instruments, often within the same concert. Recordings include the complete tone poems attracting weekly audiences of over three With Les Siècles, he has given concerts of Richard Strauss as Principal Conductor of million. The Gürzenich Orchestra’s Ohrenauf! throughout Europe, regularly appearing at the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und youth programme was recipient of a Junge key festivals (Berlin Musikfest, Beethovenfest Freiburg (2011–16) and, with Les Siècles, the Ohren Produktion Award. rançois-Xavier Roth has been Bonn, Musica Viva, Gstaad, Berlioz Festival, three Stravinsky ballets (The Rite of Spring General Music Director of the City Santander and George Enescu) and toured to won German Record Critics’ and Edison Roth has premiered works by Yann Robin, of Cologne since 2015, leading both China and Japan. They recreated the original Klassiek Prizes). Ravel and Berlioz cycles are Georg Friedrich Haas, Hèctor Parra and the Gürzenich Orchestra and the Cologne sound of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring in underway for Harmonia Mundi; the first Ravel Simon Steen-Andersen, and collaborated with Opera. He is the first-ever Associate Artist of its centenary year and, subsequently, with release, Daphnis and Chloé, won Gramophone composers like , Wolfgang Rihm, the Philharmonie de Paris and has recently the Pina Bausch and Dominique Brun dance Awards’ Orchestral Album of the Year 2018. Jörg Widmann, Helmut Lachenmann and been named Artistic Director of L’Atelier companies in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Mirages, a vocal recital with Sabine Devieilhe Philippe Manoury (from whom the Gürzenich Lyrique de Tourcoing. Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai and Tokyo. The for Erato, was Victoires de la Musique Orchestra commissioned the Cologne Trilogy orchestra has twice been nominated for Classique Recording of the Year 2018. Recent – Ring, Saccades and Lab.Oratorium). With a reputation for inventive programming, Gramophone’s Orchestra of the Year Award. releases include an album to commemorate his incisive approach and inspiring leadership Debussy’s centenary and two marking the He was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre are valued around the world. He works with In his fifth Cologne opera season, he leads 150th anniversary of Berlioz’s death (Harold National de la Légion d’Honneur for leading orchestras including the Staatskapelle new productions of Wagner’s Tristan und en Italie and Les nuits d’été and Symphonie achievements as a musician, conductor, Berlin, Boston Symphony, San Francisco Isolde and Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict and Fantastique). The Gürzenich Orchestra’s music director and teacher. •

12 Artist Biographies 19 December 2019 Alisa Weilerstein cello

this autumn, including appearances in London, she rejoins the Israeli pianist for a US recital In 2016 she released a ‘powerful and even Norway, Munich and Bergen. Their first album tour of all five of the composer’s Cello mesmerising’ recording (San Francisco together, 2018’s Transfigured Night, released Sonatas, besides playing Beethoven’s Triple Chronicle) of Shostakovich’s Cello Concertos on Pentatone, features Schoenberg’s Concerto with Guy Braunstein, Barnatan, with the Bavarian Radio Symphony and Verklärte Nacht and both Haydn Cello and the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra. Pablo Heras-Casado. Concertos. It attracted unanimous praise, Her recording of the concerto, featuring with Gramaphone magazine proclaiming, Alan Gilbert, Stefan Jackiw, Barnatan and Weilerstein’s career milestones include an ‘you’d go far to find performances of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, emotionally tumultuous account of Elgar’s the Haydn concertos that match Alisa is due for release by Pentatone this fall. concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic Weilerstein’s mix of stylistic sensitivity, and Barenboim in Oxford, England, and verve and spontaneous delight in discovery’. In recent years, Weilerstein has recorded the a performance at the White House for Beyond the partnership with the Trondheim Elgar and Elliott Carter Cello Concertos with President and Mrs Obama. An ardent Soloists, Weilerstein’s 2019/20 concert Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle champion of new music, she has worked on highlights include Saint-Saëns’ First Cello Berlin. The disc was named Recording of multiple projects with Osvaldo Golijov and Concerto with the New York Philharmonic, the Year 2014 by BBC Music Magazine, Matthias Pintscher and premiered works by Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No 2 with which featured the cellist on the cover of Lera Auerbach and Joseph Hallman. Tokyo’s NHK Symphony, Britten’s Symphony its May 2014 issue. Her release of Dvořák’s for Cello and Orchestra with Zurich’s Tonhalle Cello Concerto with the Czech Philharmonic Weilerstein, whose honours include Lincoln young cellist whose emotionally Orchestra, Schumann’s Cello Concerto with the topped the US classical chart. Her third Center’s 2008 Martin E Segal Award and the ‘ resonant performances of both Houston Symphony, Barber’s Cello Concerto album, a compilation of unaccompanied 2006 Leonard Bernstein Award, is a graduate traditional and contemporary with the Detroit Symphony, Strauss’ Don 20th-century cello music titled Solo, was of the Cleveland Institute of Music and music have earned her international Quixote and Bloch’s Schelomo with the San pronounced an ‘uncompromising and Columbia University. Diagnosed with Type 1 recognition … Weilerstein is a consummate Diego Symphony, and Elgar’s Cello Concerto pertinent portrait of the cello repertoire diabetes, she is a Celebrity Advocate for the performer, combining technical precision with the LSO, both at the Barbican and at of our time’ (ResMusica, France). Solo’s Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. • with impassioned musicianship’, wrote the Philharmonie in Paris. In recital, she centrepiece is the Kodály sonata, a signature the MacArthur Foundation, upon awarding gives solo performances of Bach’s complete work that Weilerstein revisits on the American cellist Alisa Weilerstein a 2011 Cello Suites in California, Barcelona and soundtrack of If I Stay, a 2014 feature film MacArthur Fellowship. Manchester, and joins frequent duo partner starring Chloë Grace Moretz, in which the Inon Barnatan for Brahms and Shostakovich cellist makes a cameo appearance as herself. Entering her second season as Artistic Partner at London’s Wigmore Hall, Milan’s Sala In 2015, she released a recording of sonatas with the Trondheim Soloists, Weilerstein Verdi and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. To by Chopin and Rachmaninov, marking her joins the ensemble on two European tours celebrate Beethoven’s 250th anniversary, duo album debut with Inon Barnatan.

Artist Biographies 13 London Symphony Chorus

President Associate Directors he London Symphony Chorus was The partnership between the LSC and The Chorus looks forward to the 2019/20 Sir Simon Rattle Matthew Hamilton formed in 1966 to complement LSO, particularly under Richard Hickox season, which will include performances of om cbe Nia Llewelyn Jones the work of the London Symphony in the 1980s and 1990s, and later with Beethoven’s Christ on the Mount of Olives Orchestra and is renowned internationally Sir Colin Davis, led to the LSC’s large in Europe with Sir Simon Rattle, James Vice President Associate Conductors for its concerts and recordings with catalogue of recordings, which have won MacMillan’s St John Passion with Gianandrea Michael Tilson Lucy Hollins the Orchestra. Their partnership was numerous awards, including five Grammys. Noseda, and Tippett’s Child of Our Time with Thomas David Lawrence strengthened in 2012 with the appointment Gramophone included the recordings of Alan Gilbert. of Simon Halsey as joint Chorus Director Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust and Patrons Chorus Accompanists of the LSC and Choral Director for the LSO, Romeo and Juliet on LSO Live with Sir The Chorus is an independent charity run by Simon Russell Benjamin Frost and the Chorus now plays a major role in Colin Davis as two of the ‘Top 10’ Berlioz its members. It is committed to excellence, Beale cbe Richard Gowers furthering the vision of LSO Sing, which also recordings. Recent LSO Live recordings with to the development of its members, to Howard Goodall cbe encompasses the LSO Community , the Chorus include Bernstein’s Wonderful diversity and engaging in the musical life of Chairman LSO Discovery for young people and Town and Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust, London, to commissioning and performing Chorus Director Owen Hanmer Singing Days at LSO St Luke’s. both with Sir Simon Rattle. new works, and to supporting the musicians Simon Halsey cbe of tomorrow. For more information, please Concert Manager The LSC has worked with many leading Highlights of the 2018/19 season included visit lsc.org.uk. • Robert Garbolinski international conductors and other Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges with major orchestras, including the Berlin Sir Simon Rattle at the 2018 BBC Proms LSO Choral Projects Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Leipzig and at the Lucerne Festival, Bernstein’s Manager Gewandhaus, , Candide with Marin Alsop, Puccini’s Sumita Menon New York Philharmonic, the National Youth Messa di Gloria with Sir Antonio Pappano, Orchestra of Great Britain and the European performances of Mahler’s Symphony No 8 Union Youth Orchestra. It has also toured at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam extensively in Europe and has visited the US, with the Netherlands Philharmonic and Israel, Australia and south–east Asia. Marc Albrecht, David Lang’s the public domain with Simon Halsey, and Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast with Sir Simon Rattle.

14 London Symphony Chorus 19 December 2019 London Symphony Chorus on stage Simon Halsey chorus director

Sopranos Altos Tenors Basses la Música, Barcelona, Artistic Director of the Alana Clark Lauren Au Jorge Aguilar Chris Bourne Berlin Philharmonic Youth Choral Programme, Imogen Coutts Jo Buchan* Paul Allatt* Steve Chevis Creative Director for Choral Music and Projects Joanna Gueritz June Brawner Matteo Anelli Thomas Fea of WDR Rundfunkchor, Director of the BBC Isobel Hammond Gina Broderick* Erik Azzopardi Ian Fletcher Proms Youth Choir, Artistic Advisor of the Denise Hoilette Liz Cole Joaquim Badia Rupert Gill Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Choir, Claire Hussey Maggie Donnelly Philipp Boeing Owen Hanmer* Conductor Laureate of the Rundfunkchor Debbie Jones Joanna Gill Oliver Burrows Elan Higueras Berlin, and Professor and Director of Choral Luca Kocsmarszky Rachel Green Ethem Demir Rocky Hirst Activities at the University of Birmingham. Debbie Lee Kate Harrison Colin Dunn Anthony Howick He is also a highly respected teacher and Marylyn Lewin Jane Hickey Patrizio Giovannotti Sam Loveless academic, nurturing the next generation of Doris Nikolic Elisabeth Iles Michael Harman Alex Mackinder choral conductors on his post-graduate course Maggie Owen Jill Jones Jude Lenier George Marshall in Birmingham and through masterclasses Mimi Kroll Gilly Lawson* Daniel Owers Geoff Newman imon Halsey occupies a unique at Princeton, Yale and elsewhere. Alison Ryan Anne Loveluck Davide Prezzi Alan Rochford position in classical music. He Deborah Staunton Aoife McInerney Mattia Romani Jesus Sanchez is the trusted advisor on choral Halsey has worked on nearly 80 recording Sarah Townsend Caroline Mustill Malcolm Taylor Rod Stevens singing to the world’s greatest conductors, projects, many of which have won major Lizzie Webb* Helen Palmer James Warbis Richard Tannenbaum orchestras and choruses, and also an awards, including a Gramophone Award, Rachel Wilson Susannah Priede Robert Ward* Robin Thurston inspirational teacher and ambassador for Diapason d’Or, Echo Klassik, and three Rafaela Tripalo Jez Wareing choral singing to amateurs of every age, Grammy Awards with the Rundfunkchor Kathryn Wells Anthony Wilder ability and background. Making singing a Berlin. He was made Commander of the Zoe Williams central part of the world-class institutions British Empire in 2015, was awarded with which he is associated, he has been The Queen’s Medal for Music in 2014, and *Denotes LSC Council Member Vocal Coaches instrumental in changing the level of received the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Norbert Meyn symphonic singing across Europe. Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Anita Marrison in 2011 in recognition of his outstanding Rebecca Outram He holds positions across the UK and Europe contribution to choral music in Germany. Robert Rice as Choral Director of the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Chorus Director of the Born in London, Simon Halsey sang in the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra choirs of New College, Oxford, and of King’s Chorus, Artistic Director of Orfeó Català College, Cambridge, and studied conducting Choirs and Artistic Adviser of the Palau de at the Royal College of Music in London. •

London Symphony Chorus & Artist Biographies 15 London Symphony Orchestra on stage

Leader Second Violins Cellos Horns LSO String Experience Scheme Roman Simovic David Alberman Charles-Antoine Duflot Gareth Davies Timothy Jones Nigel Thomas Since 1992, the LSO String Experience Thomas Norris Alastair Blayden Patricia Moynihan Angela Barnes Scheme has enabled young string players First Violins Sarah Quinn Jennifer Brown Alexander Edmundson Percussion from the London music conservatoires at Clare Duckworth Miya Väisänen Noel Bradshaw Piccolo Finlay Bain Neil Percy the start of their professional careers to gain Ginette Decuyper Matthew Gardner Eve-Marie Caravassilis Sharon Williams David Jackson work experience by playing in rehearsals Laura Dixon Naoko Keatley Daniel Gardner Sam Walton and concerts with the LSO. The musicians Gerald Gregory Alix Lagasse Hilary Jones David Elton Tom Edwards are treated as professional ‘extra’ players Maxine Kwok-Adams Csilla Pogany Amanda Truelove Juliana Koch Robin Totterdell Jeremy Cornes (additional to LSO members) and receive fees William Melvin Belinda McFarlane Laure Le Dantec Rosie Jenkins Simon Cox for their work in line with LSO section players. Elizabeth Pigram Iwona Muszynska Deborah Tolksdorf Harp Laurent Quenelle Andrew Pollock Cor Anglais Bryn Lewis The Scheme is supported by: Harriet Rayfield Camille Joubert Double Basses Christine Pendrill Jono Ramsay The Polonsky Foundation Sylvain Vasseur Patrycja Mynarska David Desimpelaere James Maynard Piano Derek Hill Foundation Julian Azkoul Helena Smart Colin Paris Clarinets Elizabeth Burley Idlewild Trust Richard Blayden Patrick Laurence Chris Richards Bass Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust Lyrit Milgram Violas Matthew Gibson Chi-Yu Mo Paul Milner Celeste Thistle Trust Mariam Nahapetyan Edward Vanderspar Thomas Goodman James McVennie Julia Rumley Malcolm Johnston Joe Melvin Corentin Bordelot Jani Pensola Katy Ayling Ben Thomson Organ German Clavijo Marianne Schofield James McVennie Stephen Doman Julia O’Riordan Daniel Jemison Robert Turner Joost Bosdijk Stephanie Edmundson Editorial Photography Jenny Lewisohn Contra Ranald Mackechnie, Chris Wahlberg, Cynthia Perrin Dominic Morgan Harald Hoffmann, Marco Borggreve Elisabeth Varlow Print Cantate 020 3651 1690 Heather Wallington Advertising Cabbells Ltd 020 3603 7937

Details in this publication were correct at time of going to press.

16 The Orchestra 19 December 2019